The present invention relates to a pants-type disposable wearing articles for absorption and containment of bodily discharges. The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Japanese Application Serial Number 2003-22646, filed Jan. 30, 2003, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
There are well known in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1997-38134A, a pants-type disposable wearing articles comprising a liquid-pervious topsheet facing the wearer's skin, a liquid-impervious backsheet facing away the wearer's skin and a liquid-absorbent core interposed between these top- and backsheets, and configured to define front and rear waist regions opposed to each other, a crotch region extending between these waist regions, a waist-hole and a pair of leg-holes below the waist-hole wherein a plurality of waist-surrounding first elastic members, a plurality of waist-surrounding second elastic members and a plurality of leg-surrounding elastic members are contractibly attached to article.
The article disclosed in the above-cited Publication has a waist surrounding upper end zone extending in a transverse direction across the front and rear waist regions, lateral zones of the waist regions extending in a longitudinal direction and lateral zones of the crotch region extending in a leg-surrounding direction. In this article, the lateral zones of the waist regions are put flat and joined together in the vicinity of respective edges of the lateral zones of the waist regions by means of plural welding lines arranged intermittently in the longitudinal direction.
The waist-surrounding first elastic members are arranged to be spaced apart one from another by a given dimension in the longitudinal direction and to extend along the waist-surrounding upper end zone in the transverse direction. The waist-surrounding second elastic members are arranged below the first elastic members also to be spaced apart one from another by a given dimension in the longitudinal direction and to extend across the front and rear waist regions in the transverse direction. The leg-surrounding elastic members are arranged to be spaced apart one from another by a given dimension in the transverse direction and to extending along the lateral zones of the crotch region in the leg-surrounding direction. The first elastic members and the leg-surrounding elastic members are interposed between the top- and backsheets and joined to these sheets by means of hot melt adhesives. The portions of the second elastic members extending across the lateral zones of the waist regions are interposed between the top- and backsheets and joined with hot melt adhesive to these sheets. The portions of the second elastic members extending across the core in the transverse direction are interposed between the backsheet and the core and bonded to them by means of hot melt adhesives. In the areas of the lateral zones of the waist regions placed aside toward the crotch region, the second elastic members and the leg-surrounding elastic members three-dimensionally cross one another. The above-cited Publication describes the effect such that the first elastic members cooperate with the second elastic members to tighten the article around the wearer's waist region and thereby to reliably prevent the article from slipping down along the wearer's waist region.
With the article disclosed in the above-cited Publication, assumed that the waist-surrounding second elastic members and the leg-surrounding elastic members are secured together at crossover points of these elastic members, there is an anxiety that a contractile force of the leg-surrounding elastic members might pull the second elastic members in the leg-surrounding direction to hinder a desired contraction of the second elastic members in the transverse direction, on one hand, and a contractile force of the second elastic members might pull the leg-surrounding elastic members in the transverse direction to hinder a desired contraction of the leg-surrounding elastic members, on the other hand. If the desired contraction of the waist-surrounding second elastic members and/or the leg-surrounding elastic members is hindered by the contraction of the leg-surrounding elastic members and/or the waist-surrounding elastic members, respectively, the waist-surrounding second elastic members can not tighten the article around the wearer's waist and/or the leg-surrounding elastic members can not tighten the article around the wearer's legs. Such situation may cause the article to slip down along the wearer's waist and/or may cause bodily discharges from leaking sideways beyond the crotch's lateral zones. In addition, with this article disclosed in the above-cited Publication, the contractile force of the second elastic members in the transverse direction may act directly upon the core and may form a plurality of irregular wrinkles which deteriorate a liquid-absorbing function of the core. This is for the reason that the portions of the second elastic members extending across the core are joined to the core.